Eva: Above and Beyond Revamped
by Knife Hand
Summary: The Characters from Eva fighting the war of Space: Above and Beyond. some major OOCness. SR & HT majorly revamped from the original version in the S:AAB section. Just Read! Chapter 3 up
1. Chapter 1

Title: Eva: Above and Beyond  
  
Author: Knife Hand  
  
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated  
  
Spoilers: None  
  
Rating: R  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Space Above and Beyond. I would buy them but I am broke.  
  
Summary: Follows the 106th Japanese Marine Squadron, lead by Shinji Ikari, in their battle against the Chigs. A Neon Genesis Evangelion, Space: Above and Beyond crossover.  
  
AN: I know that there are military regulations prohibiting fraternization between officers, just imagine that they were waived from high up for the Royalty.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The pale blue sun set over the shimmering velvet of the pail violet coloured ocean, the occasional wind driven wave achieving a small white cap, the overlooking shear cliffs were wooded with tall fernlike trees with smaller brush with foliage that resembled living lace, and the landward slope gradually became rolling grassland about a few hundred feet back from the precipice. The grasslands were vast, the swaying blades of the tall wild grasses only interrupted by sparse stands of trees and the occasional primary herbivorous mammal that resembled a cross between a cow and antelope grazing on the gently rolling landscape. The entire landscape seemed void of 'Intelligent' life, the only movement coming from the herbivores and the gently swaying grass, however there were two forms, completely still in the almost empty landscape, blending into their environment so much that they were almost completely invisible, even their breathing slowed so as not to give them away to any possible observer.  
  
One figure very slowly turned his head to look at the other, lying mere inches away, covered in an identical camouflage cloak to the one disguising him. Their position was just inside the edge of the woodland, hidden from casual observation behind a veil of the lace like shrubs. Checking the terrain through the scope of his sniper rifle, the first figure, Captain Shinji Ikari, waited for the target to arrive. The other figure, Lieutenant Rei Ikari, waited silently without any hint of movement, except for the very slight motion of her breathing. Just as the sun touched the surface of the water the tranquillity of the surroundings was broken by the heavy sound of a human designed spacecraft, carrying their target, an Areotech executive, as it landed in the grasslands half a kilometre from the woodlands. Except for their eyes tracking the ships landing, Shinji and Rei did not move a muscle. The second craft landed with the high pitched whine of a Chig vessel rather than the deep thumping of a human designed craft. When they saw, through their scopes the high ranking Chig officer emerge, they realised it was a listed 'Target of Opportunity'.  
  
Using hand signals, Shinji relayed to Rei to find a separated firing point and fire in ten minutes, her target being the Chig while he would take the Areotech executive. Making his way quickly and silently through the edge of the woods, looking for a perfect place to take the shot, his emotions and desires locked away till after the mission was over. He found a good location, not perfect but not bad considering the time constraints, and he set up, using the fallen and rotten trunk of a tree that had a hole completely through it as cover. Counting down in his head, Shinji caressed the trigger of his rifle, making sure that it would be a clean shot. The two shots rang out at exactly the same time, making it sound like a single shot and impossible to locate. The two targets fell, with clean holes through their heads, dead before they hit the ground. After the initial mad sweeping fire from both human and Chig weapons, Shinji slung his rifle and made his way to the rendezvous point with Rei to wait till retrieval.  
  
'I'm sorry father, but you made your choice.' He thought as he ghosted away.  
  
In the open grassland, with a hole through his head, lay the dead body of Gendo Ikari, the traitorous Areotech executive.  
  
********  
  
Shinji swept the area around the landing zone as Rei boarded the evacuation ship and turned to cover his hundred yard sprint to the bird. The second Shinji was in, the doors closed and the transports powerful engines powered up, launching the large craft off the ground and into an escape vector from the planet's gravity well and back towards the Japanese Marine Corp carrier 'Atsugi'. A few minutes after dust off, one of the crew, the 153rd 'Black Devils' squadron, approached and gave them each a box that contained all their personal items, which had been left behind for the mission. The first thing they retrieved were their wedding rings, which they immediately slipped on their finger. After retrieving their dog tags, they attached their unit patch to the Velcro strips on their shoulders. The patches had a tilted crown, its grey colouring with white specks represented stone, with an inlayed flaming red jewel on one side and an ice blue one on the other, proclaiming 'Royalty' along the top and '106th Squadron' at the bottom. A single tear rolled down Shinji's cheek and Rei gave his hand a slight squeeze, the only grieving they allowed themselves for their absent father figure. The 'Black Devil' Lieutenant who had given them their belongings watched in awe at the small but definite show of emotion of the emotionless leaders of "The Royalty", no one would believe him if he told them.  
  
The 106th had become legendary in the Japanese Marine Corp, having finished advanced training six months before the start of the war and being the only squadron to successfully engage the Chigs in combat prior to the battle of the belt, not that it had helped, as the Chigs simply decimated the forces around them and moved on. Shinji and Rei were the most famous of the 'Royals', and not only because he was the commanding officer and she was the executive officer. Their cool mannerisms and calm demeanours in battle had given rise to their call signs of 'Stone King' and 'Ice Queen', however they were legendary for seemingly physic abilities in combat. Many believed that they could read each others mind, having seen one seeming to react to the other almost before they had acted. The truth of the matter, that only the other 'Royals' knew, was that they had live together so long that the subtlest shifts in body language were as obvious as a shout.  
  
Shinji and Rei had been born a mere hour apart in the same hospital in downtown Tokyo 3. After the deliveries, Rei and Shinji's mother had been placed in the same room in the maternity ward. When Rei's mother had died of complications two days later, Yui Ikari had decided to take care of Rei, since her father had been a Marine who had died about three months before Rei's birth. With Gendo's position as a high level executive with the multi-national Areotech Corporation, and Yui's fame for microbiology and molecular physics, no one particularly inclined to argue. Yui never tried to hide the fact that Rei was not related to the rest of the family, keeping her surname of Ayanami; however she never tried to exclude her either. As babies, if Shinji and Rei were placed in sperate cribs they would, somehow, end up together. They always spent time together and whenever something happened, they would always head to the other before all others.  
  
"Sir. Lieutenant. We're about to land." The "Black Devil" said.  
  
Shinji just nodded his head as he and Rei began to get their gear ready. The shuttle landed on the pad which was then retracted into one of the Carrier's flight decks. Still wearing the distinctive, in a Carrier's corridors, jungle webbing camouflage of a Sniper's cloak and with their green painted Sniper Rifles slung over their shoulders, Shinji and Rei marched through the corridors headed strait for the briefing room. Even under the black and green camouflage pain obscuring their faces, everyone who passed could see their hard set faces, severe even compared to their usual emotionless, hard appearance. When they arrived at the briefing room, Major Masato Katsuragi, their CO with the call sign 'Empress' and Commodore Rioji Kaji, commander of the 'Atsugi', were waiting for the debrief.  
  
"Report, Captain." Misato said.  
  
"Lieutenant Ikari and I were dropped onto the surface of Melenor one week ago, approximately seventy two miles from the target site..." Shinji began.  
  
About three hours later, Shinji and Rei left the briefing room, having outlined the mission and the kills of Gendo Ikari and the Chig officer referred to as 'The Admiral' by Intelligence. After another two hours of being poked and prodded during a post mission physical by Dr Ritsuko Akagi, Shinji and Rei were finally able to return to the Royalty's quarters.  
  
The Royalty's quarters consisted of four sleeping quarters situated surrounding around a central common area. The common room had a small kitchen area in the back corner, with a scattering of couches, coffee tables and a large viewscreen occupying the rest of the space. The door from the corridor was flush against the left hand wall, with the viewscreen to its right. The door on the left wall, almost at the back of the room, opposite the kitchen, lead to Shinji and Rei's room, while the door close to it on the back wall lead to the room of Lieutenant Kensuke Aida, Call sign 'Baron' and the team's intelligence officer, with half the room covered in electronics equipment.  
  
The door just to the left of the kitchen, lead to the head; located behind the kitchen area. Towards the back of the right hand wall were two doors next to each other. The rearward on lead to Lieutenant Asuka Langley Soryu's room, the temperamental half-German redhead's call sign being 'Fire Princess' and the resident tactics expert, while the forward door lead to the room of Touji and Hikari Suzuhara, call signs 'Duke' and 'Dutches' respectively. Touji was the squad's heavy weapons specialist while his wife, Hikari, was the team medic. As Shinji and Rei entered, Touji and Hikari were seated on one of the couches watching the Viewscreen, Hikari having obviously conned Touji into watching another sappy movie. The music and the hissing of a soldering iron coming from Kensuke's room indicated that he was working on some new project or other, while the clicking of a keyboard and occasional laughter from Asuka's room just as clearly said that she was chatting with her secret online boyfriend.  
  
"Hey Shinji. You look like shit man." Touji said from the couch.  
  
"Touji, shut up. That's an order." Shinji said tiredly.  
  
"Hey, your back." Kensuke said, sticking his head out of his room.  
  
"Well, it's Mr States The Obvious." Asuka retorted, leaning against the door frame to her own room.  
  
"You ok? You weren't injured were you?" Hikari asked, her medic training coming to the fore.  
  
"We're fine. Dr. Akagi gave us a clean bill of health." Rei replied.  
  
"We just need a shower and a week's worth of sleep." Shinji added as they moved to their room.  
  
Touji and Kensuke chuckled at this, before Kensuke returned to his room and Hikari elbowed Touji to get his attention back to the movie. Rei closed the door behind them and they finally let down their defences. They slumped wearily into each other's arms as they made their way to the shower recess in their room. To tired to anything but stand under the flow of hot water, they showered then collapsed into their king sized bed. Finally able to let their emotions go, Shinji and Rei cried and held each other as they mourned the end of Gendo Ikari. Gendo Ikari, the absentee parent, the man who cared more about his work than the children he was raising, the executive who ignored reports that lead to the start of the War, the bastard who betrayed his world and family. Their father.  
  
TBC. 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Eva: Above and Beyond

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: None

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Space Above and Beyond. I would buy them but I am broke.

Summary: Follows the 106th Japanese Marine Squadron, lead by Shinji Ikari, in their battle against the Chigs. A Neon Genesis Evangelion, Space: Above and Beyond crossover.

AN: I know that there are military regulations prohibiting fraternization between officers, just imagine that they were waived from high up for the Royalty. Rei is not a clone of Shinji's mother, as stated in the first chapter.

* * *

Shinji lay in his bed, Rei curled up beside him, her head resting on his shoulder. A slight smile crossed his face when Rei tried to nuzzle her was into his shoulder, but it quickly vanished as his thoughts went back to his mother and his father. She had told Shinji, years ago back before he had joined the Marines or married Rei, to watch out for his father. When they had been young, Gendo had been an attentive father, playing with both Shinji and Rei for hours, but as they had grown, he had changed. Where Yui sacrificed her bright career for her children, Gendo had tried to sacrifice his children for his career. 

As soon as they had turned sixteen, Gendo began to bring a parade of boys and girls around their age home for dinner, all of them the sons and daughters of prominent Areotech executives and important government officials. This was done in the hopes that Shinji and Rei would forge, through marriage, vital links that would boost his career. Even when Shinji and Rei were dating, he still tried to set them up. Two days after Shinji had announced his engagement to Rei, Gendo had left for a top position on one of Areotech's orbital research stations, where they had developed resource efficient plants used on the now destroyed Tellis Colony.

Yui had been deeply hurt when Gendo had effectively left them, but she had admitted to Shinji, just before the 106th had shipped out, that she had expected it and was personally glad that Gendo had not succeeded in driving a wedge between Shinji and Rei. Happiness was all Yui had ever wanted for her children, and she was glad that they had found it in each other.

Rei shifted, turning onto her back and beginning her process of waking up when safe. The loss of her body warmth broke Shinji out of his retrospection and back to the present.

"Morning." He whispered as Rei's eyes fluttered open.

"Morning." She replied with her version of an ecstatic grin, what everyone else would call a minute smile.

They got dressed and moved out into the common room.

"Morning you two." Hikari said, gaining a nod in reply.

Hikari was busy in the kitchen. As Shinji and Rei sat at the window bench that separated the kitchen from the common room, Hikari provided coffee, toast and condiments. In short order Kensuke and Asuka also came out of their rooms. Kensuke went for the toast and jam, while Asuka made strait for the coffee.

"Touji! Get your butt out here or you'll regret it!" Hikari yelled a few minutes later, between bites of toast.

Ten seconds later Touji, hair still rumpled, emerged from his bedroom at a run. Asuka, Hikari and Kensuke chuckled at the sight. They joked and talked for twenty minutes while they ate.

"Come on. Let's go get breakfast." Shinji said, earning sounds of agreement from everyone.

In the mess hall kitchen, the head chef suddenly felt a chill.

"Put on more food. Royalty's coming." He said.

The entire kitchen staff groaned.

* * *

The 106th filed into the briefing room. Shinji and Rei sat next to each other in the front row, while the others sat randomly in the briefing room. Misato and Kaji stood in the front of the room near the projector screen. 

"Alright. We've had a message from Command. Your next patrol has been cancelled. Command has approved a multi-squadron operation and they want the best. You and the US Marine Corpse 58th squadron, known as the Wild Cards, have been selected for this mission. Your current orders are to fly the following route to these rendezvous co-ordinates, where you will dock with the USS Saratoga." Misato said, outlining the route on the star map.

"This mission is classified Omega six-one." Commodore Kaji supplied. "As per Command's orders, as of your landing on the Saratoga, you will be under the direct command of the 58th's CO, Lieutenant Colonel McQueen until the mission is complete and your return to the Atsugi. You launch in 5 hours. Dismissed."

* * *

"Checkpoint 7 reached. Left turn to two-one-three-mark-five, up attitude by ten degrees on my mark…. Mark!" Shinji ordered. 

The six Hammerheads smoothly made the course correction, while maintaining their paired arrowhead formation. The 106th had made this formation their trademark, and though other units had adopted similar formations, the Royalty were the best at it. In other units, the pairs were made up of pilots of about equal skill, creating distinct differences in the performance of the pairs. The Royalty however, paired their better and worse pilots together, creating three pairs who all perform at similar levels, with the weaker pilots flying wing to the better. In the lead flew Shinji, with Touji on his wing, on his left flew Hikari with Asuka on her wing and to the right was Rei with Kensuke on her wing.

"Stone King, this is Duchess. Got six bogies on the LIDAR, eleven o'clock low." Hikari stated calmly.

"Rodger, Duchess. Got them on my scope. Break and attack. We're leapfrogging." Shinji ordered.

"Rodger, swallowing." Hikari replied.

"Flanking." Rei stated simply.

The Chig ships were flying in standard chevron formation. After the brief exchange on the radio, the Royalty fighters split up. Rei and Kensuke made simple turns and approached the Chigs from their left flank. Hikari and Asuka dived their fighters and came up from underneath the enemy while Shinji and Touji went high and came down from above, and slightly behind the enemy.

A mere two seconds after the Chig pilots noticed the blips that were Rei and Kensuke's fighters, they were suddenly under attack from above and below. Four Chig fighters exploded under the intense barrage, and two pairs of Hammerheads passed each other at high speed from 'above' and 'below' seconds later. The two remaining Chigs both broke to evade, one running strait into the guns of Kensuke's fighter. The other fighter broke in the other direction, with Rei and Kensuke on its tail. Utilising one of the unique elements of space based dog fighting, the Chig cut main power, flipped his fighter and, while still travelling his original course, began firing back towards Rei and Kensuke. Kensuke, the target of most of the fire rolled and broke left, while Rei, with less fire coming at her, used her trusters to slip right while picking off one of the Chig missiles with her main gun and firing one of her own at offending fighter, which subsequently exploded.

"LIDAR clear." Rei announced.

"Resuming course." Shinji replied. "Good work guys."

The next three hours were uneventful as they flew the rest of the preset course.

"Objective sighted, two o'clock high." Rei's calm voice came over the radio.

"Rodger that." Shinji replied, before switching frequencies to those provided in the briefing, and his language to English. "USS Saratoga. USS Saratoga, this is the Royalty requesting permission to land. Repeat, this is the 106th Japanese Marine Squadron requesting permission to land."

"Royalty, this is the Saratoga. Permission granted, landing lights on in bay 7." The reply came.

"Rodger, Bay seven." Shinji confirmed then switched back to the Royalty's frequency. "Alright people, English from now on, and we're landing in bay seven, by the numbers."

* * *

The six Hammerhead cockpits lifted onto the flight deck and the canopies slowly opened. The Wildcards and Colonel McQueen watched as the 106th Japanese Marine Squadron all exited their cockpits with the stiffness of a long mission. They were all in their early twenties, younger than most of the Wildcards, yet they had the bearing of danger and confidence that belied their young age. They walked up to the assembled Wildcards, with the shorter dark haired, blue eyed man, a Captain by his bars, and the, strangely enough, blue haired and red eyed woman, a Lieutenant. The rest of the squadron, all Lieutenants, came grouped behind them. The tallest man, who looked like an athlete and wore his hair cropped short, stood almost protectively over the brown haired woman whose eyes showed a mix of compassion mixed with combat experience. The redhead could be simply described as a 'bombshell', her body curvaceous but also hard and well muscled. The sandy haired man had his hair in a pony tail and had a technician aura about him, despite his flight suit, enhanced by his tendency to push up a pair of glasses he no longer wears. 

The Captain's eyes flicked over the Wildcards, then over McQueen. A millisecond later the blue haired Lieutenant was also covertly studying McQueen.

"The 58th I presume." He said casually, and then saluted to McQueen. "Colonel. The Royalty reporting for duty. I'm sorry about the Angels. They were a good unit and we tried to get there in time, but the bastards cut us off from the rest of the battle."

"Thank you, Captain." McQueen said calmly.

"What were the odds for that battle, Barron?" the captain asked.

"I think it was about ten to one overall, and I think our odds were around twenty-five to one. If they weren't so intent on just isolating us, we could have been in trouble." The sandy haired man replied.

"Sounds about right." The Captain said with a shrug.

"Wow. How many did you lose?" Captain Vansen asked.

"Went in with eight, came out with us six. Lost Kaworu and Mana."

"How about we do the intro thing? Name's Copper Hawks. My Call Sign is 'Jack of Spades'."

"Subtle Hawks." Vansen said.

"Shut up Shane."

"Don't mind Hawks. I'm Captain Shane Vansen. Call Sign 'Queen of Hearts'."

"Of course. I'm Captain Shinji Ikari, Call Sign 'Stone King' and my XO, Rei Ikari, Call Sign 'Ice Queen." The captain began, indicating to the blue haired Lieutenant.

"Nathan West, OX, 'King of Hearts'. She your sister?"

"Hardly." The red head commented.

"No, Rei is my wife." Shinji said, causing a stir. "The tall jock and the brunet he's towering over are Touji and Hikari Suzuhara, 'Duke' and 'Dutches' respectively. Again married."

"Are those two married? Vanessa Damphousse by the way, 'Ace of Hearts'."

"Not on your life. I got a girlfriend in the 122nd back on the Atsugi. Name's Kensuke Aida, they call me 'Barron', and the red headed demon is Asuka Langley Soyru, ultimate bitch queen of the universe and call sign 'Fire Princess'." The guy who shouted techie said.

"Looks like Shane's got some competition. Name's Paul Wang, Call Sign's 'Joker'."

"Joker?" the red head, identified as Asuka said. "As in Joker58?"

"Yeah, that's my screen name." Wang said.

"I'm CrimsonP." Asuka said with a grin, leaning slightly towards Paul.

"Asuka, stand down off the Lieutenant immediately!" Shinji snapped, his and Rei's faces showing the complete lack of emotion that made them both respected and feared thought the Japanese Marine Corpse.

Asuka backed away from the Wildcards and Rei approached her and began talking quietly.

"My apologies Colonel. Fire Princess can be… libidinous. Ice Queen and I were married prior to enlisting, as were Duke and Duchess. We have strict rules for behaviour and Princess just broke one." Shinji explained. "There should be little further problem, but if you wish, Princess and Joker can be kept apart."

"It should be fine, Captain. If they can keep it on downtime, then I have no problem with it." McQueen said. "The 58th will show you to your bunks, get your gear stowed."

"Yes Sir." The Royalty said in unison, saluting.

As they exited the flight deck, a pilot from another squadron approached them.

"Hey, newbies! Why you taking orders from a tank?"

"Why not?" Shinji asked.

"They're a bunch of cowards." The pilot responded.

"Is Colonel McQueen? Is Hawks?" Shinji replied.

"My biological father was an Invitro." Rei said with quiet anger. "He died in combat."

Several of the pilot's mates came to drag him away as Shinji led Rei down the corridor, surrounded by the Wildcards and most of the Royalty. Asuka and Touji approached the loudmouth pilot with grins. As the loudmouth and his mates prepared to fight, Asuka simply handed him a card.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A promise." Touji said as they walked away.

The Card was printed on both sides, one side in Japanese Kanji and the other in English. It had the Royalty Unit patch and underneath it had a simple phrase.

"You offend the 106th, the Royalty kicks your ass."

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Eva: Above and Beyond

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: None

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Space Above and Beyond. I would buy them but I am broke.

Summary: Follows the 106th Japanese Marine Squadron, lead by Shinji Ikari, in their battle against the Chigs. A Neon Genesis Evangelion, Space: Above and Beyond crossover.

AN: I know that there are military regulations prohibiting fraternization between officers, just imagine that they were waived from high up for the Royalty. Rei is not a clone of Shinji's mother, as stated in the first chapter.

* * *

"So you guys were at the Belt? That was some tough fighting." Shinji said casually.

"Yeah. Our first action actually." West admitted.

"You the guys playing the music over the airwaves?" Kensuke asked. "Good stuff, where'd you get it?"

"Uh, yeah. Hawks nicked it from a relay station on Mars." Vanessa replied.

"Huh. I'm surprised that Touji or Asuka didn't nick one." Shinji said, sipping a beer and starting on his fourth plate of food.

"Nah, we got the calendar set." Asuka replied offhand.

"Touji. Chew honey." Hikari said sweetly as Touji inhaled his seventh plate.

"Whoa! These guys eat more than Hawks." Wang said.

"Come on. Is this the normal food levels or is the kitchen holding out on us?" Kensuke complained.

"Didn't you hear? They say the head chef on the Atsugi is psychic." Shinji said. "Apparently they start brining out three times the food about two minutes before we reach Mess Hall."

"On several occasions Empress and Commodore Kaji had to overrule Dr. Akagi who wanted to ground us on medicals based mostly around Touji's eating habits." Rei added, eating more sedately than the others but still on her third plate.

"Who's Empress?" West asked.

"Oh, that's Major Misato Katsuragi, our CO." Hikari said.

"Who's up for finding some real food?" Touji asked, having finished his seventh plate.

All of the 106th looked down at their plated then at each other.

"Let's go." Shinji said, leaving a bemused bunch of Wildcards to catch up.

* * *

"SCRAMBLE! SCRAMBLE! ALL PILOTS TO YOUR HAMMERHEADS!" The PA system called.

The Royalty and the Wild Cards ran hard down the corridor towards the hanger bays.

"So, what's up?" Shinji asked, his voice calm as he jumped into his hammerhead.

"The Japanese Carrier Yamamoto is under heavy Chig attack. We are less than five minutes out." McQueen said briskly.

"Royalty, sound off. Stone King. Green." Shinji said.

"Ice Queen. All boards green." Rei's calm voice came over the radio.

"Fire Princess. Let's kick some Chig ass."

"Duke. Ready."

"Duchess. All systems functioning."

"Barron. Five by five."

"Royalty, launch." Shinji ordered.

The six hammerhead cockpits dropped from their ports and connected with the waiting plains below. Along with the 58th to their immediate right and the other squadrons of the Saratoga, the 106th hammerheads shot out of the launch bays and into space.

As they approached the battle, it was obvious to Shinji that the Japanese fighters were falling back before the more numerical Chigs. He knew that the Japanese pilots were almost ready to break.

"Royalty, split wing to Yamamoto vectors on my mark." Shinji ordered before switching frequencies. "Queen Six, Royalty breaking to sure up Japanese defences."

Switching frequencies again, Shinji also switched language to his native tongue.

"All Japanese Fighters, Royalty's visiting, repeat Royalty is visiting. Break out the welcome wagon." Then he switched back to his squadron channel. "Mark!"

At his call, the squadron split in two. Shinji, Hikari and Kensuke broke up, forming into a tight triangle, then went inverted as the sped over the majority of the Chig forces, their dorsal turrets pounding away at the enemy. Rei, Touji and Asuka broke down and did the same, without inverting. As they reached the Japanese line, the two groups did slow arcs and formed back into their paired arrowhead in a single smooth motion.

As the 106th approached the Chig forces, the Japanese fighters, whose moral had almost broken due to the more than six to one odds against them, began to form up behind the legendary squadron.

"Let's divide and conquer. Barron, sound off the Moto's squadron's on our lead." Shinji ordered.

Shinji heard Kensuke's voice ordering the six fighter squadrons to form up on the pairs of Royalty fighters. Shinji and Touji, with their two squadrons ploughed strait into the Chig's centre as Hikari's force took the left and Rei's took the right.

"Stone King to Queen of Hearts. We're the hammer, you're the Anvil." He said calmly on the Toga's frequency, as his Hammerhead spun radically to take out a Chig closing on one of his fighters then flipping back to his original course, inverted and blasting away with his dorsal turret.

"Rodger Stone King. Let's get em." Vansen replied.

"Counting game. Losing squad treats the winners to dinner." Asuka chimed in.

"Oh hell no." Damphousse said.

"Phouse is right. You've seen how they eat." West said. "I'll cost us six month's combat pay."

"Then don't lose." Rei's voice seemed totally calm, except to Shinji who heard the note of amusement.

"Wildcard's are currently at thirty-five." McQueen's voice broke in.

"Twelve." Shinji said.

"Hah!" Hawks began.

"Eighteen on my end." Rei added.

"Only ten over here, but two were heavy bombers." Hikari said.

"And the Royalty are on forty." A note of amusement ringing in McQueen's voice.

"Shit." Vansen said.

"Got another one." West reported.

McQueen loved the kids he commanded in the 58th, but he also respected and was beginning to like the 106th. As the fight continued, most of the Saratoga's fighters were bumped off the primary comms channel and moved to secondary frequencies, as the primary channel was filled with kill and confirmation reports from the Royalty and the Wildcards, along with McQueen's running totals on total kills for each squadron.

In the Combat Command Centre of the Toga, Commodore Ross walked over to the comms station where an inordinate amount of activity was going on. Colonel McQueen was marking something down on a board and several of the crew were anxiously whispering till they noticed his approach. As he took a long look around everyone, except McQueen, seemed to hold their breath.

"Put me down for ten on the Wildcards." Ross said calmly before walking back his central display.

* * *

"Good work out there people." Colonel McQueen called out to the assembled pilots in the main briefing room.

The 106th and all the pilots regularly assigned to the Toga were present for the debriefing.

"The Yamamoto sends their regards to all our pilots and I believe they mentioned a celebration for the Royalty next time they board." McQueen continued.

"Great. Another Carrier we can't visit without a fuss. I'm getting sick of all those celebrations" Touji complained.

"Look on the bright side, Touji. If we ever do land on the Moto, at least there'll be lots of food." Kensuke replied.

"Yeah." Touji said brightly.

"Now that's settled." The Colonel said with a grin. "We can get down to serious business. The final scores for the Wildcard verses Royalty contest. Wildcards got a final score of one hundred and twelve."

Those who had betted on the 58th cheered.

"And the Royalty got…. One hundred and twelve. We have a tie people."

Groans echoed through the room. The news quickly spread throughout the Toga, with only a few of the crew winning, but one thought went through the minds of most of the crew.

'Those 'Royals' seem decent enough.'

TBC…


End file.
